This invention relates to building components used for building construction and, more particularly, to pre-manufactured, composite building panels or other composite building components that exhibit improved strength, weight, and efficiency characteristics.
Recent changes in today""s housing industry have led to an increased use by builders of premanufactured or fabricated construction components. Premanufactured building components, such as panels, are used for walls, roofs, floors, doors, and other components of a building. Premanufactured building components are desirable because they decrease greatly the time and expense involved in constructing new building structures. However, the premanufactured building components for structural-load-bearing panels must comply with a number of required specifications based on structural criteria, such as axial load-bearing, shear and racking strengths, and total weight of the components. Additional criteria that may affect the specifications of the components include fire resistance, thermal insulation efficiency, sound abating properties, rot and insect resistance, and water resistance. In addition, the preferred premanufactured components are readily transportable, efficiently packaged, and easily handled.
Premanufactured components for building construction have in the past had a variety of constructions. A common component is a laminated or composite panel. One such composite panel includes a core material of foam or other insulating material positioned between wood members, and the combination is fixed together by nails, screws, or adhesives. These wood composite panels suffer from the disadvantage of being combustible and not mechanically stable enough for many construction applications. These wood composite panels are subject to rot, decay, and insect attack. Accordingly, wood composite panels are not deemed satisfactory for a large cross-section of modern building applications. In one variation of the wood-composite building panel, a laminated skin is fixed to the outside wood members. These panels with the laminated skin are more expensive to manufacture while suffering from the same inadequacies as the panels without the laminated skins.
A significant improvement to the building component technology was developed and set forth in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,846, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The improved technology provides a structural building component, having front and back side panels positioned opposite each other, and a plurality of joining sides positioned intermediate the front and back side panels so as to substantially define a six-sided structure having an interior area therein. An insulating core is positioned in the interior area, and the insulating core has a plurality of throughholes extending between the front and back side panels. A plurality of individual shear resistance connectors are positioned in the throughholes and adhered to the front and back side panels.
Constructing the building component using the shear resistance connectors substantially increases the shear strength of the component. As a result, improved building components can be constructed to vary the load-bearing strength vs. weight characteristics of the building components by varying the thicknesses, densities and configurations of the side panels and the joining sides, and by varying the number, configuration and positioning of the shear resistance connectors. Accordingly, a person can design a building structure, determine the structural requirements for the building components, and then select a desired load-bearing strength, shear strength, and weight of the building panels to meet the structural requirements, and then construct the appropriate specified panel required for the defined application.
The improved building components with shear resistance connectors can be very strong, lightweight, and versatile building components, compared to similar panels without the shear resistance connectors. However, the manufacturing of such building components can be a relatively time-consuming and labor-intensive process, which can increase cost and lower the availability of the components.
The present invention is directed toward a structural building component that overcomes drawbacks experienced by other building components and exhibits greater structural capacity while being easier and less expensive to manufacture. In one embodiment of the present invention, the building component is an asymmetrical, directional force resisting building component forming a panel including front and back sections, an insulating core, integral joinery, and at least one shear resistance connector. The front and back sections are constructed of a first material and positioned opposite each other. The front and back sections of the building component define an interior area. An insulating core constructed of a second material different from the first material is within the interior area for improving the insulating properties without significantly adding to the weight of the building component.
The front and back sections further include integral symmetrical joinery pieces. The integral joinery allows two or more building components to be bonded together to form an integral unit, while a gap or break integral to the joinery provides a thermal break, which disallows thermal energy to pass from the inside to the outside of a building structure, or vice versa.
The building component further has an elongated channel-shaped shear resistance connector formed as part of either the front or back section. The building component is directionally oriented such that the maximum shear force can be applied to a side of the panel opposite the shear resistance connector. The front and back sections may be further adapted to receive a face sheet cladding. The face sheet may span one or several panels and provides additional synergistic structural strength advantages. A single unclad panel unit provides a first level of structural strength that exhibits advantages over the prior art such as greater structural capacities at correspondingly lower weights and smaller physical sizes, all providing greater cost effectiveness than traditional building construction materials. Two or more connected panels combine to provide a second level of structural strength that has a sum greater than the sum of the individual panels"" strengths. The addition of a face sheet spanning more than one panel provides a third level of structural strength that has even greater synergistic structural strength advantages as compared to the individual panels, or the unclad connected panels.
In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the building component has a shear resistance connector array having one or more shear resistance connectors that are integrally connected to the front or back sections, and the shear resistance connectors extend at least partially into the interior area toward the other of the front or back sections. A web portion of the shear connector array is an integral portion of the front or back section, and the shear resistance connectors project away from the web portion into the interior area.
In another embodiment of the invention, the shear resistance connector array is a unitary member defining a plurality of shear resistance connectors, and a web portion is integrally connected to and spanning between the shear resistance connectors. The integrally formed shear resistance connectors are hollow with an inside area extending between a closed end of the shear resistance connector spaced apart from the web portion and open end substantially coplanar with the web portion. The web portion of the shear resistance connector array further includes one or more apertures intermediate the shear resistance connectors, and a portion of the insulating core extends through the apertures and is adjacent to the back side portion of the building component. The shear resistance connector defines an inside area that, in one embodiment, is filled with a selected material having lessor or greater density than the first material.
In another embodiment, the shear connector array is connected to the front section with the shear resistance connectors extending toward the back section and terminating at a position intermediate the front and back sections. The back section also has a shear resistance connector connected thereto that extends toward the front section. Each of these front and back sections are adapted to receive a face sheet thereon.